200 JOINT-STOCK BANKS ESTABLISHED. [1826. Liverpool said he was old enough to remember the time when there was scarcely such an institution as a country bank except in great commercial towns, and when the transactions of the country were carried on in Bank of England notes, and money obtained from London. There had been a great change. Any small tradesman, a cheesemonger, a butcher, or a shoemaker might open a country bank. The exclusive privilege of the Bank of England did not touch them. But an association of persons with fortune sufficient to carry on a banking concern with security was not permitted to do so.* The panic of 1825 produced the great measure of 1826, sanctioning the establishment of Joint-Stock Banks; under which enactment a banking firm might include any number of partners except within sixty-five miles of London. This year was also the date of the establishment of Branch Banks of the Bank of England. Scotland was exempted from the prohibition of the small note currency. It is worthy of note, that during the panic not a single Scotch bank failed. The difficulties of capitalists in the manufacturing districts produced, as their inevitable consequence, distress amongst the workers. In those days riot was too commonly the concomitant of distress. The popular excitement took the usual course of the days of popular ignorance,-the destruction of machinery. At various places in Lancashire, from the 23rd to the 30th of April, one thousand power-looms were destroyed, with the old accompaniments of reading the Riot Act and calling out the military. At Trowbridge the populace, who found potatoes dearer in their market than on the previous week, believing themselves injured by the monopolists of vegetables, attacked all the standings of the market gardeners and country butchers, so effectually doing their work that they scared away for some time all those who kept down the prices of the town dealers by competition. There were riotous proceedings and destruction of property in most places where the operatives were suffering distress. Lamentable as such outrages must be in their effects upon the sufferers themselves, they sometimes speak with a stronger voice than the sober arguments of those who would mitigate the suffering by inquiries into its remediable causes. Whilst the noble and the rich of Lanarkshire, in a public meeting, resolved that the distress of the working people of Glasgow was to be attributed to machinery, they, and most other landed proprietors, strenuously resisted any approach to a relaxation of the Corn Laws. The price of wheat had fallen in March below the price of January, chiefly in consequence of a belief that the government intended to release bonded wheat at a low duty. The ministers declared they had no such intention, and the average price again rose to that of the beginning of the year. The complaints and violence of the manufacturing districts alarmed the government, and at the beginning of May the release of the corn in bond was proposed and carried, with a discretionary power to admit foreign grain to the extent of five hundred thousand quarters, in the event of the next harvest proving unfavourable. These concessions were not obtained without great difficulty,-without a protest on the part of the ministers that they had not, and could not, have any connection whatever with any measure affecting the existing system of the Corn Laws. “If,” * "Hansard," vol. xiv. col. 19. 1826.] STATE OF THE CATHOLIC QUESTION. 201 said lord Eldon, "the measure pledged that House, or any man in that House, to any alteration unfavourable to the Corn Laws, he would be the last man to stand up as its advocate." * At the close of the Session on the 31st of May, the royal intention was announced "to dissolve without delay the present Parliament." It was the seventh session of that Parliament. The dissolution at this early season had no reference to the state of political parties, but simply had regard to the convenience of the time for a general election. The leading question upon which men's minds would be most stirred throughout the kingdom, and especially in Ireland, would be that of Catholic Emancipation. The Cabinet remained in the position as to this question which it occupied in 1812, when lord Castlereagh became one of its members. Catholic Emancipation was what is called "an open question," upon the principle described by Mr. Canning," the principle of treating it as a question out of the ordinary course of ministerial business; as one to be argued upon its own merits, such as they might appear to each individual member of the administration."+ Lord Liverpool, as the head of the government, was opposed to the Catholic. claims, but his opposition was qualified by the moderation of his character, and no one doubted his sincerity. Lord Eldon again and again avowed his "firm and determined purpose to support to the last our establishment in church and state." When Mr. Canning became Secretary of Foreign Affairs, he was unpopular with the Anti-Catholic party in general, and obnoxious to the Lord Chancellor in particular. § Lord Eldon was, however, consoled by the decided views of Mr. Peel on this subject, whose influence with the Anti-Catholic party was materially strengthened by his position as representative of the University of Oxford. Mr. Peel, although then of comparative unimportance as a political leader, was in 1818 preferred by the University as a representative of its orthodoxy, whilst Mr. Canning was rejected. Upon the great "open question," the party of Mr. Canning in the Cabinet obtained in 1825 a majority in the House of Commons upon a Bill for the repeal of disabilities, the enactment of a state provision for the Roman Catholic clergy, and the raising of the qualification of the Irish franchise from forty shillings to ten pounds. The Bill passed the Commons by a majority of twenty-seven. It was rejected by the Lords by a majority of forty-eight. On the 25th of April the duke of York, on presenting a petition from the Dean and Canons of Windsor, made a speech which produced an enormous sensation throughout the country, and especially from his concluding words :-" My own opinions, my lords, are well known. They have been carefully formed. I cannot change them. I shall continue to act conformably to them, to whatever obloquy I may be exposed, in whatever circumstances and in whatever situation I may be placed. So help me God!" The Relief Bill had been read a second time in the House of Commons four days before this memorable declaration by the Prince of the Blood next the throne, the heir presumptive; but it had no doubt a great influence in producing the large majority in the House of Lords against the bill. Lord 202 DEATH OF THE DUKE OF YORK. [1827. Eldon writes: "If the duke of York's speech was imprudent, it has, nevertheless, on account of its firmness and boldness, placed him on the pinnacle of popularity." The duke became the Protestant hero; his speech was printed in letters of gold, and zealous Protestants interpreted the words "in whatever circumstances I may be placed," as an assurance that whatever might be the dangers of the country, whatever might be the risk of a rebellion in Ireland, probably of a disruption of the Union, the duke of York, if he came to the throne, would interpret the Coronation Oath as his father had interpreted it. The duke, by the frankness of his character, his attention to the interests of the army, and his popular demeanour, had many friends and admirers, who, nevertheless, privately thought, as the Lord Chancellor privately wrote:-"It is to be regretted that in his highly important and lofty situation he spends so many days with blacklegs, and so many nights at cards." In the session of 1826 the question of Catholic Emancipation was not agitated in Parliament. On the 1st of January, 1827, the death of the duke of York was momentarily expected. The duke died on the 5th. The Lord Chancellor mourned deeply over the loss of the Prince, chiefly because he had great influence with the King, and in correspondence with his Majesty upon political questions, and in his recommendation of proper persons to be continued or appointed ministers, was much governed in his judgment, by what had been, and what he thought would be, the conduct of each person as to the Catholic claims. This was the one test of fitness for office with the duke of York and with the Lord Chancellor, who thus recorded their mutual opinions. Mr. Canning was especially hateful to them at the time of the duke's illness, when the Chancellor "saw a great deal of his Royal Highness." The Foreign Secretary's memorable speech of the previous 1st of December, on the subject of the aggression of Spain upon Portugal, "was regarded by the Tories as amounting to a demonstration in favour of liberalism."§ The funeral of the duke of York took place at Windsor on the night of the 20th of January. Nothing in that ceremony was more remarkable than the mismanagement by which the Cabinet ministers were marshalled by the heralds in the nave of St. George's Chapel two hours before the arrival of the funeral procession. The night was bitterly cold. As we ourselves looked down from the organ loft upon the greatest in the land, thus doomed to stand upon the unmatted pavement, shivering and shifting their uneasy positions, we observed the oldest man of the Cabinet taking very wise precautions for his personal comfort and safety. One who was by the side of Mr. Canning, attributes to his kindness of heart a suggestion to the Chancellor that he should lay down his cocked hat and stand upon it.|| The Chancellor's health was preserved by this precaution. The funeral of the duke proved fatal to Mr. Canning. He caught a cold there which resulted in an illness from which he never really recovered.T The removal from the active concerns of life of a public man more imme 1827.] ILLNESS OF LORD LIVERPOOL. 203 diately important to the nation very soon followed the death of the duke of York. On the 16th of February lord Liverpool moved an address to the King, expressive of the concurrence of the Peers in a message recommending a provision for the duke and duchess of Clarence. The next morning the servant of the Prime Minister, going into his sitting-room after breakfast, found him senseless on the floor in a fit of apoplexy. On the 18th lord Eldon thus expressed his opinion as to the results of this event: "His life is very uncertain, and it is quite certain that as an official man he is no more. Heaven knows who will succeed him." The hopeless illness of lord Liverpool must have been a heavy blow to Mr. Canning, whatever prospect might have opened to him of taking that post in the state which might be called his by inheritance. The fatal stroke of apoplexy broke up a friendship of forty years between the two statesmen. Immediately after the funeral of the duke of York they were together at Bath, telling stories of their early years, and amusing each other with recounting all sorts of fun and adventures.† They were college friends at Christ Church. They entered the House of Commons together in 1792. They differed, as leading members of the same cabinet, only upon one point of policy-that of Catholic Emancipation. The moderation of lord Liverpool prevented that difference operating in the slightest degree against the cordial support of his friend's liberal foreign policy, and that support of the Prime Minister carried the Foreign Secretary through the opposition which otherwise might have overwhelmed him. This prop was gone, and he must now trust to his own resources to contend with or to propitiate jealous colleagues, or retire at once from the position which he had won by his administrative talents and his unrivalled eloquence. The Catholic question was the chief barrier which opposed his natural claim to be the head of a ministry such as existed under lord Liverpool. It was a time when the advocates and the opposers of relief to the Catholics would be pitted against each other, and no possible doubt could be entertained of the consistency with which the leaders of each party would maintain their opinions. On the 5th of March sir Francis Burdett had proposed a resolution, "That this House is deeply impressed with the expediency of taking into consideration the laws imposing civil disabilities on his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, with a view to their relief." In the adjourned debate on the 6th, Mr. Secretary Peel and Mr. Secretary Canning were distinctly marshalled against each other; and each, without any direct personal allusions, sufficiently expressed his own views for the guidance of his followers. Mr. Peel, alluding to the death of the duke of York, and the incapacity of lord Liverpool, declared that he had now an opportunity of showing his adherence to those tenets which he had formerly espoused-of showing that he stood by his opinions when the influence and authority which might have given them currency was gone, "and when it was impossible, he believed, that in the mind of any human being he could stand suspected of pursuing his principles with any view to favour or personal aggrandisement." The biographer of sir Robert Peel, his diplomatic friend and ardent admirer, says that this language did not * Twiss, vol, ii. p. 583. + Stapleton, p. 580. "Hansard, vol. xvi. col. 980." 204 NEGOTIATIONS PREVIOUS TO CHOICE OF A MINISTER. [1827. meet with entire credence, it being a prevalent opinion that as Mr. Canning was growing daily in influence with the liberal party, Mr. Peel was anxious on his side to secure to himself the firm support of the Tories," in order to raise himself eventually to the head of the government." Mr. Canning, in his reply, glanced with a very intelligible meaning at the consequences that would result from throwing away any chance of improving the condition of . Ireland, if a ministry wholly Anti-Catholic should carry into effect the doctrine of Mr. Peel, that the troubles and difficulties of that country should be met by firmness and decision:-" Firmness and decision, sir, are admirable qualities; but they are virtues or vices according as they are used. I will not take them in the unfavourable sense in which they have been taken generally, by the ears which have heard them this night; for if I did, I should not envy the hand on which would devolve the task of carrying such a system into effect." The king had quickly to determine upon his choice, not of either of the principles avowed by these two parliamentary leaders, but of the possibility of reconciling those differences of opinion under a premiership which might allow the continuance of that system of compromise which made the Catholic question an open one for the Cabinet. The king consulted the duke of Wellington, Mr. Peel, and Mr. Canning. These ministers had repeated conferences with each other, but no solution of the difficulty could be arrived at. There was no one to be found, either ProCatholic or Anti-Catholic, who could be placed at the head of the government with the same power and influence as lord Liverpool had exercised for continuing the system of compromise. Mr. Canning saw the difficulty, and offered to retire if the king could form an administration wholly composed of persous thinking as the king himself thought. His Majesty did not see the possibility of maintaining such a ministry; and finally on the 10th of April, gave his commands to Mr. Canning to prepare, with as little delay as possible, a plan for the reconstruction of the administration. ‡ On the 12th of April a new writ for the borough of Newport was moved in the House of Commons, in consequence of the acceptance by Mr. Canning of the office of First Lord of the Treasury. At the same time it was agreed that the House should adjourn till the 1st of May. During this interval the greatest excitement prevailed, not only amongst political partisans, but in every circle in which the characters and opinions of public men formed subjects of discussion. The commanding talents and the liberal policy of Mr. Canning produced a very extended hope that he would be able to maintain his great position against the attacks of his numerous enemies. At this time lord Eldon wrote "the whole conversation in this town is made up of abusive, bitterly abusive, talk of people about each other-all fire and flame; I have known nothing like it."§ It was pretty generally known that the offers of Mr. Canning to six of his late colleagues in the Cabinet had been either contemptuously or civilly rejected. Those of his colleagues who resigned their offices before or on the 12th, were-the Lord Chancellor, the duke of Wellington, lord Westmoreland, lord Bathurst, lord Guizot," Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel," p. 28. See Note at the end of this chapter. § Twiss, vol, ii. p. 588. |